Learning From the Amish

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Yesterday, my midwife posted a very fascinating article on birth stats and the Amish community that was published by no other than Fox news. It talks about several things that I will list in bullet form:

• "The study examined 418 Amish women who delivered 927 babies at a birthing center in Southern Wisconsin, a facility that lacked an operating room."
• Only 4% where born by c-section (they were transferred to a hospital if a problem was detected) whereas nearly a third (approx. 33%) of all babies are born via c-section across the US.
• Only 5.4 per 1000 infant deaths in the Amish community (mostly because of little to no prenatal care) compared to 4.5 per 1000 infant deaths across the US (which most usually get great prenatal care) 
• No mothers in the study died 
• In the Amish community 95% had VBACs (vaginal birth after cesarean) whereas only 8% of women have VBACs across the US
• "Historically, doctors have had concerns that a vaginal birth after a C-section, a so-called VBAC, would increase the risk of a rupture of the uterus. But in the study, no women experienced this complication." (emphasis mine)
• " In 2010, the National Institutes of Health recommended that women with previous C-sections attempt, in subsequent pregnancies, to delivery vaginally first, before resorting to a repeat C-section."
• They worked to turn breech babies before resorting to a c-section. This worked most of the time. Whereas in the US 92% of women whose babies are breech end up have a c-section. The article implies no one ever tries to turn the baby before resorting to c-section. I find that hard to believe but clearly they are either not trying or not using effective techniques. 
• " A national Institutes of Health analysis showed that 3.8 maternal deaths occurred for every 100,000 VBACs, whereas 13.4 deaths occurred for every 100,000 repeat C-sections." (emphasis mine)

*There are a couple things that the study notes that I think are important to add:
1) No high-risk pregnancies gave birth at the birth center therefore the statistic may have been higher if these women had been added to the study
2) Of the 19 babies that died only one of the babies died of a condition that could have possibly been prevented at a hospital.

I include both of those things not because I believe hospitals are safer (because I don't think that is always true. In fact I always wonder how many maternal and baby deaths could have been prevented if "interventions" had been minimized) but, rather, because I am not in the business of withholding facts that could influence a persons decision.  

I hope you will read the article yourself and tell me your thoughts. : )